Police Review Lab Work After Suicide of Scientist

NY Times ^ | June 12, 2008 | NICHOLAS CONFESSORE

[neverdem]

New York State Police officials are notifying district attorneys across the state that evidence in criminal cases may have been compromised by a forensic scientist who committed suicide last month after auditors discovered that he had not followed proper procedures in some cases, officials said Tuesday.

The scientist, Garry Veeder, worked at the State Police crime lab for more than 30 years analyzing so-called trace evidence, such as fibers, physical material and impressions left at crime scenes. The agency is reviewing his work going back at least a decade and cannot yet say how many cases could have been compromised.

But police officials and some local prosecutors said that the cases included burglaries, assaults, murders and nearly every other variety of criminal case.

Mr. Veeder, 58, hanged himself in his garage on May 23.

No evidence has emerged so far that Mr. Veeder issued inaccurate findings or that prosecutors relied on false evidence in a criminal trial. But the district attorneys are being notified so that they can retrieve their own files on the cases and await further information from the agency, officials said.

“None of the evidence in the cases reviewed has been found to be inaccurate or incorrect, but that doesn’t mean that we won’t find something,” said Lt. Glenn Miner, a spokesman for the State Police. “He wasn’t following our procedures, and because he wasn’t following our procedures...”

--snip--

But Mr. Veeder was the lab’s sole expert on fiber evidence, such as threads recovered from clothing at crime scenes. State Police procedure requires at least two tests on fibers. The initial test, known as a relative refractive index test, helps scientists narrow the type of fiber being studied. But a confirming test, known as a Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy test, is required to definitively identify the fiber...

[neverdem]

This is a real tragedy. The initial test will just rule something out or in for further testing. Infrared spectroscopy makes a match with known standards of chemicals, especially chemicals synthesized from organic chemistry. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy is supposed to be even better.

[nw_arizona_granny]

Ping.